Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. ~ Virginia Woolf

BTT: Good Until the Bitter End?

“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation.

That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.

Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Let’s see, how shall I answer this? A book is generally 300-500 pages and isn’t all that much of a sacrifice. I think I follow Ben Harper’s “Don’t knock it before you try it” theory, all the way to the end: I can’t justly defend my opinion on a book if I haven’t finished it.

That said, if it’s truly awful, I’ll put it down. Life is certainly not that short but, of course, there is no point at all to doing something that is allegedly for pleasure if it’s going to make you miserable. I’m also more likely to drop a book if it’s from the library as I’ve wasted no resources on it. Although, if I’ve made it a good chunk of the way through the story, I’ll usually keep plugging as my resource, then, becomes time.

I also feel much better about dropping a book I have checked out from the library. It rather annoys me when I have paid for a book and it turns out to be poorly written. That doesn’t happen too often, but still…

I say if you can tell you don’t like it, don’t waste your time. It’s a personal decision. I certainly feel confident enough in my own tastes to put down a book that is frustrating me from boring word to boring word. Life is short, but quiet time when one has two young kids running around is even shorter. So reading time is precious!